Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
15. One of 380 families of herders sheltering in the El Hache Camp,
North Eastern Province, Kenya, after losing their livestock to the
severe drought that extended across East Africa after the failure of the
rainy season in October 2005, continuing a decade of low rainfall
other geographical issues involving resources, environment, and
development.
Hunger and famine in sub-Saharan Africa is a regional problem
where particularities of the natural and social environment are
increasingly being seen in the light of the values and perceptions
of a new world order (Figure 15). Understanding of the particular
physical basis of the problem is important, including the rainfall
regime, the changing frequency of droughts, soil quality, and the
habitat conditions under which disease vectors thrive. But so are
increasing population pressure and its ecological impact, effects
of the slave trade and the colonial era, divisive internal ethnic
and religious differences, globalization and outside political
interference, and the widespread failure of the African political
leadership. There are similar geographical dimensions to the
very different problems that are posed in other regions of the
world, whether these involve the deforestation of Amazonia, the
